Friday, October 14, 2011

Gold

It took longer than it should have - Gold status, that is.

I mean via Star Alliance with the airlines. I went from Black Sheep to Golden Boy with my parents years ago - though in reality, I believe I'm falling out of favour. With my parents, that is, not the airlines.

You would think of all the travel I do, that I would have been Gold sooner. I did. But then there was September when I did little travel. And there was that unfortunate booking of a number of trips on Southwest of Delta, which have their own frequent flier miles.

I do not discount the first half of the year, where the most I was flying to was North Carolina, Chicago and Philly. Smaller trips. Fewer miles. Fewer legs. That wasn't getting me anywhere fast.

With Star Alliance, you achieve "status" by miles or number of legs. With the shorter jaunts - yes, I said 'jaunts' - you probably get to Silver by legs. It's harder to make Gold. Impossible to make Platinum.

With longer trips, you are probably better off by miles. I did Silver by legs, Gold by miles.

And while I know I only have two and one-half months left of this calendar year, there is potential to get to Platinum. I've done the math with the travel I know I have to do in the next few weeks, and I'm close. What you see in my title image is still a half a trip not noted for yet. I have another leg and another 2200 miles to add to my current total.

The joke is: I don't know what to do with all these miles. The Gold status gets me access to the President's clubs in the airports. Yeah, I could cash miles in for free trips, but I use the status for upgrades. This last trip I got bumped to First Class on the way out and back. Back was nice, since it was a red-eye....and for as much as I can sleep on planes (which ain't a lot), it's better than I could in coach.

When one gets to Platinum, the upgrades are clearly more frequent. It's not that I care about the food, it's about the butt and leg room - and sometimes the Direct TV.

Don't get me wrong, I know I sound like a complete d-bag talking about 'status', but when you travel as much as I do, these are the perks. You rarely enjoy or see anything in the city where you do business that's not the airport or the hotel. One may as well take what they can get out of it.

4 comments:

....I know exactly what you mean....I've hit the top tier with Lufthansa for the past six years, and having the status really makes a difference when you can by-pass the long check-in lines, relax in the lounge, and have a limo waiting for you on the tarmac to take you to your next plane (of course...you don't have that in the US..hehehe)